Incremento de la producción azucarera y trata de esclavos

Going beyond the trade theory implications, different country experiences suggest that trade liberalisation alone cannot act for growth and development. Especially for the LDCs, lack of trade related infrastructure facilities and deficiency of knowledge on market access potentials deprive them from gaining through greater openness. In a recent study, it has been estimated that in terms of economic welfare gains, full merchandise trade liberalisation, along with removal of domestic supports, will result in US$ 141 billion increase in the income of developing and least developed countries (New farmer and Nowak, 2006). However, to reap this benefit, the countries are badly in need of international assistance for trade negotiations and capacity building.

On the other hand, the costs of trade liberalisation in terms of, for example, preference erosion, impact of increased food price for net food importing countries, adjustment costs during economic policy changes with resource reallocation and impacts on shaping national development policies, signifies the need for assistance for the developing and least developed countries. The first meeting after the formation of WTO addressed the issue and from 1997, there was an initiative for strengthening LDCs’ trade capacities known as the Integrated Framework (IF) for Trade-Related Technical Assistance to the Least Developed Countries supported by six donors, the IMF, ITC, UNCTAD, UNDP, the World Bank and the WTO, with OECD/DAC as observer. Although the amount of aid for trade-related technical assistance and capacity building has increased significantly from the beginning of the Doha development round in 2001 (see, figure 8.1), at the end stage, to make it really pro-developmental, the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration included AfT as a formal clause in article 57.

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Figure 8.1: Aid for Trade: Narrow and Broad Definitions

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 19941995199619971998199920002001200220032004 B ill io n U S $ Source: OECD (2006)

In response to the requests from G7 and G8 finance and development ministers, the World Bank and IMF jointly proposed the AfT package to assist developing countries, especially LDCs, in achieving the objectives of the Doha Development Round. The aim of the package is ‘to help developing countries, particularly LDCs, to build the supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure that they need to assist them to implement and benefit from WTO Agreements and more broadly to expand their trade’ (Article 57, Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration).

The rationale for aid targeted to trade expansion can be two-fold: Firstly, aid flows in terms of international economic cooperation, most of the times, are unpredictable, attached to specific conditionalities, incorporate lack of coordination among the donors, uncertainty relating ownership of the recipient country. Secondly, international assistance in general have small allocations for trade related development. Therefore, the objectives of the proposed aid for trade package are to address supply-side constraints in developing countries for taking advantage of the enhanced market access facilities arising from trade liberalisation, and to assist them in coping with the adjustment cost of trade liberalisation. Broad AfT (1+2+3) Narrow AfT (1+2) 2. Infrastructure 3. Productive Capacity Building 1. TRTA/Capacity boutaling

178 8.3. The Current Status and the Achievements

The director general of WTO formed the Task Force for operationalising AfT in February 2006 with 13 member countries/regions to provide recommendations to the WTO general council by July 2006. The objectives of the task force were to examine the scope of existing AfT, outstanding needs or gaps, the kind of delivery mechanisms needed to address those gaps, and how AfT can contribute to the development dimension of the Doha Round. The Task Force was set for encouraging concrete and result oriented proposals and communications form different international agencies and country groups in response to the written questions sent by the Task Force.

The report submitted by the Task Force placed recommendations for shaping and operationalising the AfT program processed through strengthening ‘demand’ and ‘response’ from the recipients and donors. The report explicitly mentioned that sectors to be considered under the AfT program should be included in the national development agenda of the country, such as PRSP. Therefore, the recommendations include recipient countries to mainstream trade related aspects separately in their development strategies. The countries are suggested to form National Aid for Trade Committee to work for identifying national priority programmes and projects and evaluate the total AfT program, and to incorporate the private sector, besides the public sector, in the development works and initiatives relating greater trade openness. Besides the country level suggestions, the report placed some regional (including sub-regional and cross-border) and global balancing strategies between the demands and responses of AfT. According to the report, AfT should target for enhanced regional integration; there should be initiatives for regional needs assessment and the possibility of establishing Regional AfT committee can also be explored. Construction of a global database and the provision for multilateral channels for AfT are highlighted in the report too. All these require assigning responsibility to specific authorities.

In terms of defining AfT, there are four pillars that have been set out:

• Pillar 1: Capacity building to address supply constraints

One of the major problems the developing and least developed countries face in utilising the preferential market access in developed countries is

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lack of supply-side capacity. In most of the cases, their technical and industrial capacity does not support the qualitative and quantitative requirements set by international importers. The suggestions and negotiations of AfT extend the scope of providing financial support to not only these supply side capacity building initiatives, but also for facilitating the trade in services, rules and dispute settlement.

• Pillar 2: Trade related infrastructure

The problem of lack of infrastructure facilities is acute for the LDCs involving poor transportation, port and customs, and storage facilities, along with power supply and communication system. The marketing and distribution facilities are far from satisfactory level and therefore needs assistance for improved trade integration.

• Pillar 3: Trade system costs: adjustment and implementation

Trade liberalisation results in adjustment and implementation costs for the shift of competitive advantage and sectoral composition of the economy.

• Pillar 4: Trade policy development and participation in rules- making

AfT scopes and contents so far include assisting diagnostic work, investment lending (larger investment operations), technical assistance and budget support, trade integration mechanism and integrated framework, impact and needs assessment, improving trade related global public goods, e.g. trade databases, analytical tools etc. and ensuring country ownership of trade strategy.